COMMENT ON TALLASSEE'S WASTEWATER WOES & MEGA PRISON IMPACTS

The discharge permit for the Tallassee Sewer Stabilization Pond (wastewater sewage lagoon) is up for reissuance, and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has issued a draft permit that is available for public comment.

A sample letter is ready for you to personalize and send to the right. *Please replace "[YOUR OWN COMMENTS HERE]" with your own comments.*

Comments can be submitted through Friday, January 15, 2021, and commenters can request ADEM hold a public hearing on the draft permit.

Click here to read the permit. 

Click here to read Tallassee's Wastewater Woes from Alabama Rivers Alliance.

SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR COMMENTS:

• The Tallassee wastewater system has been failing and in violation of its current discharge permit for many years. Due to those permit violations, Tallassee’s wastewater system is under a consent order with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
• These violations impact local water quality and residents’ enjoyment of the Tallapoosa River, which receives discharges from the sewage lagoon.
• Though the city is mandated to make upgrades to its wastewater system to comply with the consent order, engineering reports filed with ADEM show that the project is behind schedule and that the facility continues to violate its permit in the interim, including the limits on E. coli, Total Suspended Solids, pH, Total Residual Chlorine, and Biological Oxygen Demand.
• The draft permit issued by ADEM is tiered to permit both the current 1.4 million gallon/day (MGD) system and a to-be-built expanded 2.4 MGD system. This expanded system is being built to comply with the existing permit limitations and existing load on the wastewater system. It is premature for ADEM to issue a permit for the upgraded facility, particularly since the scope and design of that upgrade appear to be changing.
• The Mayor of Tallassee (who is also the Superintendent of Utilities) has publicly spoken about the plans of the state and private developers to build a new mega-prison housing roughly 4,000 inmates and staff near Tallassee that would connect to Tallassee’s wastewater system.
• Despite delayed construction of the upgraded facility and continued violations of the current facility’s permit, the Mayor has supplied a “will serve” letter to the private prison developer assuring this company that Tallassee will provide wastewater services to the prison with an upgraded wastewater treatment facility that can process up to 4 MGD, a much larger amount than the stated 2.4 MGD system Tallassee has requested ADEM to permit in this draft permit.
• ADEM should not permit any new connections to the Tallassee wastewater system until the city can demonstrate full compliance with its current permit, particularly not the addition of a mega-prison that would greatly increase the strain on the system.
• Due to the history of violations and serious impacts that Tallassee’s wastewater system has had on the community, along with concerns of a mega-prison being added to an already overburdened system, ADEM should hold a public hearing in Tallassee (or via a virtual option due to the Covid-19 pandemic) on the draft permit in order to allow members of the public to voice concerns over the status of upgrades to the wastewater system, reasons for the delay, appropriateness of issuing a tiered permit, and any future commercial or industrial additions being contemplated (such as the prison) to the wastewater system that could result in violations of this permit if it is finalized.